Saturday, March 18, 2000
Fish fries perennial favorite
Fund-raisers a staple of the Lenten season
BY JIM HANNAH
The Cincinnati Enquirer
March traditions: NCAA hoops. Green beer. And Friday night fish fries at St. Cecilia Church in Oakley.
The man entrusted to carry on this tradition at the 87-year-old Catholic church is hesitant to admit he's the boss.
“If something goes wrong, those guys are in charge,” John Bernert, 47, of Oakley said while pointing to the servers and cooks. “I guess the biggest crisis we face is when customers show up before the fish is cooked.”
Few traditions are stronger in the Tristate than the Friday fish fry during Lent. On Fridays during the weeks leading to Easter, churches, fire departments and other not-for-profit organizations hold dinners where fried fish, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and homemade desserts are served.
The parents at St. Cecilia have organized a fish fry for a long time. Mr. Bernert guesses about 11 years, and he has worked it every year. He does it to keep low the fees students are charged to play sports. The fee is $20 per sport. A bargain, the par ents insist.
“And because I'm a sucker for punishment,” said Mr. Bernert, an electrician.
Mr. Bernert sent his only son, Joe, to St. Cecilia School.
Joe, a sophomore at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, was spending his spring break not at Daytona Beach, Fla., but helping out at the fish fry.
“I come back whenever I can to try to help out,” said the 19-year-old, wearing a Purdue baseball cap turned backward. “And I have to work during spring break. No trips for me.”
On Friday, the first customers were Jerry Stites, wearing his black and red UC sweat shirt, and his wife, Audrey. They both ordered the $4 fish dinner.
“They haven't changed the place much at all ...,” said Mr. Stites of Kenwood, who graduated from St. Cecilia in 1956. “It just seems a lot smaller than I remember.”
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